Certified Architect and Cloud Admin training recommendations?

[michaeler26]

I got my Enterprise Admin cert 2 months ago and am now looking at taking the Cloud Admin and Architect exams in the next 3-4 months. I work with Splunk everyday but on the analytics and visualization/search/dashboarding etc. side.

Splunk recommends 6 classes to get these two certs, that equal $8k total between them. I figure the Practical Lab is a must but want to only take 1-2 others and learn the rest from reading the admin manuals and learning from other sources to save money.

1. Splunk Cloud Administration – 18 Hours ($2000)
2. Transitioning to Splunk Cloud – 9 Hours ($1000)
3. Troubleshooting Splunk Enterprise – 9 Hours ($1000)
4. Splunk Enterprise Cluster Administration – 13.5 Hours ($1500)
5. Architecting Splunk Enterprise Deployments – 9 Hours ($1500)
6. Splunk Enterprise Deployment Practical Lab – 24 Hour Practical Lab ($1000) **

Any recommendations on which 1-2 of the other 5 I should absolutely pay to take? On the flip-side, are any of these easy to get the knowledge through the admin manuals or outside sources?

[SanjayReddy]

Hi @michaeler26 

Thank you posting your query in splunk community,

 to answer your query.

1.Courses 2 to 4 are mandatory if you want to go for Architect certification.
2. For cloud certification courses 1 and 2 are not mandatory  , you can attempt the exam without taking course 1 and 2. 
but if you want to learn cloud , I would recommend course 1 , it's for new admins(for you).

on the flip side.

if want to get experience on topics ,you can always refer to splunk documentation and also learn by doing. 
following is the topic wise document links which really helps to get started.   

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.3/Overview/Administering 

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.3/Overview/Searchingandreporting

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.3/Overview/ManagingKnowledge

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.3/Overview/Extending

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.3/Overview/Troubleshooting